Should schools close again?

[FuckinGoddess]

I’m at the end of my tether.

Worried about Omicron, of course, and the devastating effects it could have on lives.

Worried about children missing out on even more education. Worried about being forced to stay at home again. And worried about people dying.

What do you think will happen? What should happen ?

This is a genuine question. Why are these classrooms so bloody cold? A couple of windows opened just a bit provides decent ventilation. Is the heating not on? What are these schools where the children are so cold actually doing.

2 reasons that classrooms are so cold:

1. Heating. The heating is on for the normal length of time each day - as it was pre-pandemic. That is all we can afford. Without more money, we cannot run the heating for all the hours the children are in class. With more money, we could, and children would be warmer. Insulation (more money) would also help - my classroom is single storey, with only 1.5 internal walls and the rest and the roof external. Anything held to the walls with Blu-tac falls off even in normal years, because the walls become so cold that the Blu-tac sets solid and loses its adhesion!

1. Decent ventilation - as measured by the fabled C02 monitors - requires windows to be reasonably open on a continuous basis. Mine are the swing type, and are held open about 25 cm at the bottom. I need at least 4 open this much, continuously, as well as the internal door, to keep the alarm on the monitor from going off. There are at least 35 people in the classroom continuously, and just opening the windows sporadically during the day isn't enough.

No!

Who only said today it's a mild variant.
Wish people would stop overreacting.

This is a genuine question. Why are these classrooms so bloody cold?

Our heating goes off at lunchtime to save money-it has done ever since I’ve been there. The morning heat used to last a ‘bit’ but I’d often be marking after school in my hat, gloves and coat. Now, with windows open, it’s bitterly cold all afternoon.

Thanks for the answers to my question about heating. I haven't taught since Tony Blair was PM and the radiators in my classroom used to belt out heat - too much.

It's a bloody disgrace

Why are classrooms cold? Ventilation due to 30 breathing , unvaccinated children perhaps?

Oh my word! I’m lost.

If it wasn’t such a serious thing to thrown our kids educations under the bus. And if it wasn’t the second time (no — third) time inside 2 years…

…It’d be funny. Something absurd that we’d laugh at.

What have we come to?

Get a grip is the best I can muster!

Our class has a hot air blower that is next to no good as it’s at the top of the wall so as the heat rises , we freeze below. Although the children never complain and some remove cardigans, it’s just us staff that don’t run around the playground like maniacs that are cold.

@caringcarer

Xmas holidays is a natural fire break. Hopefully schools can all have a deep clean over the Xmas break.

I very much doubt it. @caringcarer

Have you seen the number of school cleaning vacancies advertised. No staff to deep clean schools. ( made far worse by many being Eastern European and leaving the Uk because of Brexit).

The stats suggest to me that in the U.K. coronavirus is pretty much endemic.

Closing schools now is pointless

I read this thread yesterday thinking there was no way our school would close.
Here I am 24 hours later proved wrong.
But no, I don’t think government will close schools, but there are only a so many teachers and if they’re all off sick with covid well the school does close.

"but there are only a so many teachers and if they’re all off sick with covid well the school does close."

Shame they're still not being prioritised for jabs then, isn't it? All those posters over the last year or so saying that teachers aren't special and shouldn't "push in" the vax queue...

Deep cleaning won't do anything at all to combat Covid especially if the schools are shut for two weeks. It would be a pointless waste of money and cleaning products.

@CallmeHendricks I definitely do think they should be prioritised. They keep people like me working

I strongly suspect if individual schools end up closing, it may well be as a result of staff behaviour!

DD is in year 8 and informed me this evening that she saw at least 50 staff members packed into a small staffroom at lunchtime, all unmasked, tightly packed and sharing food and drink.

She has also told me that a Christmas party is planned for the teachers with a buffet and night out!

I personally have also seen teachers packed into costa coffee branches after school, with others sharing cars and visiting bars.

@GreenLakes And how did your daughter manage to see all that?
Sharing food and drink? How could she tell?
And how is anyone supposed to eat and drink whilst wearing a mask?

GreenLakes and so what? Teachers are meant to mix with hundreds of possibly infectious kids all day for their and their parents' benefit but then must immediately return home and isolate until the next day? I don't think so really, do you? How very dare teachers have a coffee?? Come on. Oh and there is absolutely no way staff discuss their party plans with Y8!

[quote Username7521]@CallmeHendricks I definitely do think they should be prioritised. They keep people like me working[/quote]
I'd be fine with that too. No problem waiting for mine until all school staff have theirs.

@Angrybird123

DD overheard some of the teachers discussing their Christmas night out plans this morning.

I’d have thought teachers would want to do everything possible to minimise the risk of infection, particularly at this time of year. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that a buffet and night out was planned.

I have no issue with teachers perhaps quickly collecting a takeaway coffee or similar and taking it home or perhaps sitting on a park bench. But I was very surprised to see multiple teachers crowded round a table in a packed Costa branch after school yesterday!

No of course schools shouldn't close. There will most likely be a new variant every year forever more, like with the flu. This endless worry over covid is ridiculous and unsustainable.

Why should teachers be punished? It's not on teachers to follow stricter rules than are set out for the population.
Get a grip.

@Elephantsparade

Perhaps they should shut for a couple of weeks over christmas and new year.

Er....they do....

@Treaclepie19

I don’t expect teachers to be punished but I would think they’d be cautious at this time of year.

They don’t need to self isolate outside work but I wouldn’t have thought crowding into packed staffrooms and non-essential nights out would be top priorities.

I’d be absolutely fine with teachers grabbing a takeaway coffee and sitting distanced on a park bench.

[quote GreenLakes]@Angrybird123

DD overheard some of the teachers discussing their Christmas night out plans this morning.

I’d have thought teachers would want to do everything possible to minimise the risk of infection, particularly at this time of year. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that a buffet and night out was planned.

I have no issue with teachers perhaps quickly collecting a takeaway coffee or similar and taking it home or perhaps sitting on a park bench. But I was very surprised to see multiple teachers crowded round a table in a packed Costa branch after school yesterday![/quote]
How utterly outrageous of them to want to have a life outside of work. Coffee inside, with other humans?? Absolutely shocking. So very dangerous.

Perhaps you should write to the HT - or better still, your MP - to express your concerns. You could include a list of what socialising is acceptable for teachers to do.

I don't want schools to close again.

What I want is for parents to stop being such total fucking dicks and sending CLEARLY ILL CHILDREN TO SCHOOL WITHOUT A PCR TEST.

6 children in my class this week (more last week), plus the TA and now her children because one parent is a dick.

Another parent "If I'd even thought it could be covid I wouldn't have sent her in, she only has the sniffles and aching legs" - DO YOU LIVE UNDER A ROCK???! Positive test.

"He gets migraines all the time, this will be one of those" Positive test.

Only one child I've sent home with clear symptoms, has been negative.

Scream.

So, because you don't want your child to miss school, you make loads of other children miss school. Cheers.

I’d be absolutely fine with teachers grabbing a takeaway coffee and sitting distanced on a park bench.

How very fucking generous of you. Everyone else in the world allowed in hospitality venues with no masks at all, no real protective measures, but you'll 'be fine' with teachers having to stay outside on a bench.